Your tax cap can move with you.
Longtime Florida homeowners sit on a quiet asset: the gap between what their home is worth and what it’s taxed on. Portability lets you take up to $500,000 of that gap to your next Florida home — and almost nobody prices it into their move. Two numbers from your TRIM notice and you’ll know what yours is worth.
Common questions
What is Save Our Homes portability?
Florida caps how fast a homesteaded home’s assessed value can rise (3% a year or inflation, whichever is lower). Over years that builds a gap between market value and assessed value — your Save Our Homes benefit. Portability lets you transfer up to $500,000 of that gap to your next Florida homestead, so your new tax bill starts from a lower assessed value instead of resetting to full market value.
How does it work if I’m downsizing?
Proportionally. If your current home is assessed at 65% of its market value, your new home starts at roughly 65% of its purchase price. Upsizers port the full dollar gap (up to the $500,000 cap); downsizers keep the same percentage discount. The calculator handles both automatically.
How long do I have to use it?
You must establish your new homestead within three tax years of abandoning the old one — that clock runs by tax year (January 1), not move date. You file form DR-501T alongside your new homestead exemption application.
Does portability move my CDD or HOA costs?
No. Portability only affects the ad-valorem (value-based) portion of the tax bill. CDD assessments, other non-ad-valorem lines, and HOA dues follow the new home regardless — which is why the true-monthly-cost view on every listing here shows them separately.
Are the portability rules different county by county?
No — portability is statewide Florida law, so the $500,000 cap, the three-tax-year window, the upsize/downsize formulas, and form DR-501T are identical in all 67 counties, and the benefit moves across county lines. What changes by county is the tax rate applied afterward (which is why the calculator asks for the destination county) and any local add-on exemptions, like the senior exemptions some counties offer — those sit on top of portability rather than changing it.
Can I split the benefit or port from outside Florida?
Divorcing or splitting owners can divide the benefit under specific rules, and the benefit can move to any Florida county — but nothing ports from out of state. For any edge case, the county property appraiser is the authority, and I can point you to the right office.
Educational estimates, not tax advice. Rates are county medians from this site’s annual Florida DOR tax-roll import; your actual millage, exemptions, and non-ad-valorem assessments will differ. The county property appraiser’s own portability estimator is the final word — I’m glad to walk through yours with you.
Thinking about the next move?
Portability math changes what you can afford. Krista Fracke prices it into both sides — what your home sells for, and what the next one really costs monthly.